I was speechless (and for me that hardly ever happens) when I met Valerie Plame Wilson last week at a VIP reception in New York hosted by the Women's Leadership Exchange (WLE) and Aetna. You may recall, Valerie is the former CIA undercover agent whose identity was revealed after her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, wrote an op-ed piece in the New York Times criticizing the Bush Administration for the Iraq war and claims that Saddam Hussein was acquiring uranium ore to build nuclear weapons from the African nation of Niger.

Valerie's career with the CIA took her all over the world gathering information, recruiting spies and working deep undercover. In 1998, she started spying for a new CIA division, counter-proliferation, and became Director of Operations for the CIA's Iraq joint task force. She and her team met with Iraqi scientists trying to find evidence that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. About a week after her husband's article was printed in the New York Times, Valerie's name and CIA affiliation were disclosed in a newspaper column written by Robert Novak. Her career was over and her security as well as that of her family was put in jeopardy.

Valerie's story is something of which movies are made. She's written a book entitled: Fair Game: My Life as a Spy, My Betrayal by the White House. I can't wait to read it. 

Now for the reason I was speechless. I knew Valerie was scheduled to be the keynote speaker at the WLE East Coast Summit, but I wasn't expecting to meet her at the VIP reception. Therefore, when I was introduced to her, I was taken aback. Heck, she didn't look anything like a spy. She's blonde, very attractive, thin, fashionable, and the mother of girl-boy twins. She remembers her toddlers running around underneath her desk when she was Director of Operations at the CIA -- a scene to which many working moms can relate.

But not many working moms I know carried an 80 pound backpack and 5.56 mm ammunition for an M-16 through thick woods and swamps as part her job training. This gruesome exercise was part of Valerie's paramilitary training at the CIA "farm." Casually and with a little reserve, she also mentions she was the best shot with an AK-47 in her mostly-male CIA training class. Unbelievable. I don't even like camping -- roughing it to me is staying at a hotel without 24-hour room service.

However, the thing that impressed me most about Valerie (other than the fact we were both wearing great looking red shoes -- it's a girl thing) is how she's dealing with this life-altering experience that destroyed her career, her husband's consulting business, harmed both their reputations, nearly ended her marriage and put her children in danger. To survive, Valerie explained she went back to the basics and defined what she wanted the outcome of her ordeal to be. She made a list of the most important things she wanted to salvage: her marriage; the well-being of her children; and her dignity.

So what did I learn about small business from a spy? At the conclusion of her keynote remarks the next day, Valerie said, "All of us face crisis that throws us off track. As long as you remain true to your personal convictions, you'll get through."

She's right. Fortunately, most of us will never experience anything comparable to Valerie's ordeal, but there are always going to be tough times. Right now, as the economy continues to spiral out of control, many of us are bracing ourselves for financial struggles, personally and professionally. Often times, strength of character is the key differentiator among those who succeed and those who don't.

Ken Blanchard, author of The One Minute Manager says there is only one boss and that's company values. But it's not just company values that are important, it's our personal values, too. Entrepreneurs are resilient, innovative, persistent and determined. Hold onto your beliefs and don't compromise and, as Valerie says, you'll get through.